Cover image courtesy of Bronwen Healy
Wednesday afternoon will see a field of 11 contest the G1 Thousand Guineas at Caulfield, and there’s one among them ringing the ‘underdog’ bell loudest. She’s the Sooboog filly Boogie Dancer, and she also happens to be the race favourite.
Across most of the betting markets, Boogie Dancer leads She’s Licketysplit (NZ) (Turn Me Loose {NZ}) and North Star Lass (Zoustar) in a field that also contains Russian Conquest (Russian Revolution) and Madame Pommeray (No Nay Never {USA}).
For Boogie Dancer, it’s a career-high ambition off a last-start victory in the G2 Thousand Guineas Prelude. On that day, she was roof-raising with jockey Luke Nolen, winning by 3.25l in a field that brought She’s Licketysplit home third.
Boogie Dancer has started six times for four wins to date and, trained by Peter Moody, she’s won just shy of $400,000 in prizemoney. It’s not bad for a filly that cost a fraction of that amount.
“We sold her at the Melbourne Premier Sale for $50,000, and we felt then that she should have been a sale-average filly,” said Kayley Johnson, whose Rushton Park Thoroughbreds in Victoria bred Boogie Dancer in 2019.
“In Melbourne, a sale-average filly is around the $100,000 or $120,000 mark, and we felt she was a good enough physical, but we know our market can be very tough on those stallions in their second seasons, which is what she was.”
Boogie Dancer is from the second crop of the Kitchwin Hills resident Sooboog. His cross with the broodmare Search For Fame (Quest For Fame {GB}), which produced this filly, was a good physical match, or at least the Johnsons thought so.
Sooboog | Standing at Kitchwin Hills
“People’s response to her when they saw her at the sale was that she was too big, which I found hard,” Kayley Johnson said. “I personally felt that she was perfect for an early August foal, but when that’s the feedback, you have to take it onboard.”
Boogie Dancer entered the ring at the 2021 Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale with tempered expectations from her vendor and, in the end, she fetched just a single bid.
“Wylie Dalziel was the only one that bid on her and he only put the one bid in, from memory,” Johnson said. “He got her on reserve and I remember being slightly happy that she had sold to such a good stable (Peter Moody), but also slightly disappointed that she’d sold for that much.”
“Wylie Dalziel was the only one that bid on her (Boogie Dancer) and he only put the one bid in... I remember being slightly happy that she had sold to such a good stable (Peter Moody), but also slightly disappointed that she’d sold for that much ($50,000).” - Kayley Johnson
Dalziel and Moody signed for the filly at a reserve that had been reduced on inspection feedback. Boogie Dancer was a good style of yearling but she had a lot of frame to grow into, something she has done very well.
“From the get-go, she was an outstanding type of filly and I had a lot of time for her as a foal,” Johnson said. “She always had a very good attitude and I do think a lot of the good ones seem to be that way, so it was no surprise that she’s gone on to do what she has.”
The Johnsons had enough of an opinion of Boogie Dancer to keep a share, which is exactly what they did when the filly was sold.
David and Kayley Johnson
“I’m very grateful that I went down and saw Wylie straight after selling her,” Johnson said. “He was keen for us to come on in and it’s been great to see her do so well.”
Win some, lose some
Of the 11 fillies in Wednesday’s Thousand Guineas, six have gone through a public sale and Boogie Dancer was the cheapest at $50,000.
Closest to her is the Written Tycoon runner, She’s Pretty Rich, who was a $70,000 weanling in 2020, while Russian Conquest cost Snowden Racing $425,000 at the 2021 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale. North Star Lass was $260,000 at the same sale.
Boogie Dancer as a yearling | Image courtesy of Inglis
“When you look at the Guineas lineup, it's amazing because we’re a bread-and-butter farm,” Johnson said. “We don’t have big-name clients, nor do we breed horses to the Snitzels, I Am Invincibles and horses like that. Statistically then, it’s a lot harder for people like us to get good horses, but this filly goes to show that it can be done.
“For David and I, Rushton Park is our only form of income, so even when it came to selling her for $50,000, we had to price her where she could be sold. We made the decision at Melbourne Premier that we’d lower her reserve a little bit, and we put that money back into service fees and things like that the following year. It’s swings and roundabouts, isn’t it?”
“We don’t have big-name clients, nor do we breed horses to the Snitzels, I Am Invincibles and horses like that. Statistically then, it’s a lot harder for people like us to get good horses, but this filly (Boogie Dancer) goes to show that it can be done.” - Kayley Johnson
Boogie Dancer’s dam, Search For Fame, has a similar kind of story.
At the very beginning, she was purchased as a yearling by Vin Cox for $70,000, consigned by Brooklyn Lodge to the 2007 Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale. The best she managed during her career was a second at Newcastle, and she went to stud in 2010.
Search For Fame proved a tricky breeder, and she was eventually consigned to the 2017 Inglis Sydney Broodmare Sale. She was bought by Rushton Park via Randwick Bloodstock (FBAA) for just $28,000 on the faith that her then 2-year-old, Miss Exfactor (Your Song), was showing promise.
In the end, Miss Exfactor won the G3 Birthday Card S., but that didn’t happen until 2020.
Miss Exfactor, when racing, winner of the G3 Birthday Card S. | Image courtesy of Sportpix
“After we bought Search For Fame, I remember thinking she wasn’t going to live up to expectations,” Johnson said. “She has a very chequered breeding history but we took the gamble, and she did live up to expectations eventually.”
Despite being difficult to breed, Search For Fame went immediately in foal to Sooboog. It was just one of those things, following years of missed pregnancies to the likes of Dane Shadow, Epaulette and Sepoy. Boogie Dancer included, the mare has had six foals, but it wasn’t enough to sustain the faith.
Rushton Park sold Search For Fame on Inglis Digital in December 2020. She went to Baddock Bloodstock for $800, who in turn sold her on Inglis Digital in April this year for $3250 to Viv Oldfield. It was before Boogie Dancer’s Sandown debut in June, and long before her Tranquil Star victory.
Gallery: Images courtesy of Inglis Digital
“She was proving very hard to get in foal, so it was just one of those things,” Johnson said. “This is a line of business where you can’t keep them all, and I couldn’t have guessed that Boogie Dancer would get to this level.
“Talk to anyone who’s been in this industry long term and they’ll tell you these hard-luck stories.”
Sooboogy nights
Boogie Dancer will be the first tilt at the Guineas for her Kitchwin Hills sire, Sooboog. The story isn’t lost on the Kitchwin studmaster, Mick Malone, who’s followed it along from the start.
“It’s a terrific story for us too,” Malone said, speaking to TDN AusNZ on the eve of the Guineas. “Sadly, it’s taken Sooboog a little while to hit his straps, but this is where horses start. Horses like Boogie Dancer can put a stallion on the map, and I’ve heard that happen many times before.”
Mick Malone | Image courtesy of Bronwen Healy
From a stallion farm’s perspective, a Guineas win would be valuable.
Boogie Dancer is Sooboog’s sole stakes winner from two crops to the track, and he’s had 49 winners of 71 races. Aside from the filly, Birdsville, also trained by Moody and now in Hong Kong, was third in the Listed Talindert S., and Port Albert was third in the Listed Redoute’s Choice S.
“You don’t stay relevant long in this game, so you need horses like Boogie Dancer to keep you there,” Malone said.
“You don’t stay relevant long in this game, so you need horses like Boogie Dancer to keep you there.” - Mick Malone
The Kitchwin Hills studmaster has had time to absorb the emergence of Sooboog as a stallion, and he has an interesting perspective on these sire sons of Snitzel.
“If you look at a horse like Shamus Award, standing at Widden he probably got to a point in his life where Sooboog is right now,” Malone said. “They ended up selling him, moving him south and he jumped out of the ground, and now he’s standing for $88,000 and you can’t get in.
“Albeit they’re Snitzels where you think they’re going to go early, maybe these sire sons of Snitzel need some time. Sooboog has good numbers this spring off the back of what Boogie Dancer has done already, so fingers crossed she’ll keep heading that way for him.”
“Albeit they’re Snitzels where you think they’re going to go early, maybe these sire sons of Snitzel need some time.” - Mick Malone
For Malone, the fact of Sooboog being the underdog stallion in Wednesday’s race isn’t something he’s paid much attention to. The Guineas field features daughters of Russian Revolution, I Am Invincible, Zoustar and such others.
“I probably don’t think about things like that enough,” he said. “You just get on and work your days on the farm without thinking like that.
“But it’s really cool. It’s really, really cool that we can have a representative of our farm in a race like the Guineas, and we’ll knock off, have a couple of beers and watch the race. And if she wins it, we’ll be screaming the little Kitchwin tavern down around us.”
